Search results matching tags 'productivity' and 'Leadership'http://sqlblog.com/search/SearchResults.aspx?o=DateDescending&tag=productivity,Leadership&orTags=0Search results matching tags 'productivity' and 'Leadership'en-USCommunityServer 2.1 SP2 (Build: 61129.1)Writing and Delivering a Successful Full-Day Technology Seminarhttp://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2014/05/06/writing-and-delivering-a-successful-full-day-technology-seminar.aspxTue, 06 May 2014 14:14:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:53825KKline<p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;">I was recently chatting with the current President of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sqlpass.org/">PASS</a>,&nbsp;Thomas LaRock (<a href="https://twitter.com/#!/SQLRockstar">Twitter</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thomaslarock.com/">Blog</a>), and Pieter Vanhove (<a href="https://twitter.com/Pieter_Vanhove%E2%80%8E">Twitter</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://pietervanhove.azurewebsites.net/">Blog</a>), a prominent SQL Server consultant and expert in Belgium, about how I go about building and presenting a full-day technical seminar. In the SQL Server world, we tend to call these "pre-cons", as in pre-conference seminar, because they're typically offered as paid add-ons occurring prior to a full technical conference. We call them that even when they come at the end of the conference and, heck, when there's no conference at all.</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;"><a href="http://kevinekline.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Kevin-and-Kendal-PASS-2013.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-5884" alt="Kevin and Kendal, PASS 2013" width="580" height="385" style="border:0px;cursor:default;display:block;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;" src="http://kevinekline.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Kevin-and-Kendal-PASS-2013-1024x681.jpg"></a></p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;text-align:center;"><em>Kevin and Kendal Van Dyke preparing to kick off a session at the PASS Summit 2013</em></p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;">Personally, I have developed and delivered six different pre-cons over the years. Four are purely technical and two are professional development oriented. I keep them up to date and deliver around six per year these days, though I've done as many as ten in a single year. (But that was because I had a daughter's wedding to pay for.&nbsp;<em>Shameless plug - HIRE ME to deliver one of these in house.</em>)</p><h2 style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:21px;">The Foundation of a Good Pre-Con Seminar is a Good Topic</h2><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;">There are a ton of perennially favorite topics which, once you write the session, you’ll be able to present over and over again. One interesting technique to choose a good topic, if you're not sure what you want to present, is to use Google Insight to see what are the most popular variations of a topic you feel strongly about.&nbsp;Here are some additional thoughts on choosing a topic:</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;">1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The most popular topics are always focused on&nbsp;<strong>‘help me do my current work better/faster/stronger’</strong>. Broad, but fundamental topics tend to draw bigger audiences than niche topics. However, some events have a large enough attendance that even niche topics will pack a room. And always remember that your event organizer's goal is to pack the room, no matter how much they like you.</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;padding-left:30px;">a.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The biggest winners in my market are server troubleshooting &amp; performance tuning (for DBAs) and various topics on better SQL coding (for devs). That’s why a session on performance tuning or coding best practices will bring in more attendees than, say, a session on features in the newest release or professional development. That’s sad for me, since I love leadership and career training and have a really good full day pre-con on the topic, but they&nbsp;<i>never&nbsp;</i>bring in more than 1/3 of what the biggest tech session brings in. And don't forget - people love to hear about mistakes to avoid just as much as how to do things better. So "gotcha" topics can bring in just as many attendees as a best practices session.</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;padding-left:30px;">b.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Sessions that drill into a&nbsp;<i>hot and hyped</i>&nbsp;new technology tend to do really well too. So something like ‘Implementing Big Data with SQL Server’ can bring in a big crowd. But technologies that are too broad and ill-defined have the opposite effect on attendance. For example, many people still don't "get" Azure or cloud computing in general. So, while it's definitely a worthwhile topic, don't be disappointed if you don't put a butt in every seat.</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;padding-left:30px;">c. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Some pre-cons are feature-oriented, like Replication or Disaster Recovery. Many of these features are very cool, but are only available in SQL Server Enterprise Edition. For example, some of the Always On Availability Group features are EE only. Less people have Enterprise Edition than Standard Edition, so less people will come to an Enterprise Edition-oriented session.&nbsp;&nbsp;The features you plan to discuss will directly correlate to your attendance numbers. I'm telling you to avoid these topics, rather just expect it to have an impact in the size of your audience.</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;">2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; You will absolutely spend way too much time researching and developing your slide deck. So it’s also always good to&nbsp;<strong>choose a topic you want to learn more about</strong>. This’ll not only improve the attendees skills, but yours as well. Want to learn more about Hekaton? Then include it in your pre-con. Want to learn more about SQL Server query tuning? Write and deliver a session on it. You'll learn it better than you ever would, independently, because you&nbsp;<i>know</i>&nbsp;you'll get tough questions and you want to be prepared for those.</p><h2 style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:21px;">You Can Attract and 'Manage' Your Audience Through Your Abstract</h2><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;">This is the second most important step. You can’t control what your audience is like once they get into the room. But you can&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration:underline;"><em>strongly influence</em></span>&nbsp;who decides to come into the room in the first place with your session title and abstract.</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;">Personally, I believe your title should immediately inform the reader of the topic and who is intended to reach, such as "<em>Cutting Edge Debugging Techniques for the .NET Develope</em>r" or "<em>Top 10 Mistakes New Tech Managers Make"</em>. The title is alone constitutes 60-75% (by my careful, non-scientific assessment) of &nbsp;what will drive an attendee to your session. In fact,<em>&nbsp;many attendees never even read the session abstract</em>, unless there are two sessions at the same time that seem equally worth attending. In that case, the abstract is often the tie-breaker.</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;">Be sure that your abstract explains not only what the session is about, but what the topic is and why people should care about it. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a session abstract that names a specific, niche feature in the title but doesn't tell what that feature is in the abstract. I once saw a session whose title was, and I paraphrase, "<em>Introduction to the Flux Capacitor</em>". The abstract said I'd learn three cool was to use the flux capacitor and would see live demos of the flux capacitor in action. But it didn't say what tool the flux capacitor was used in (.NET? BI? Java? SQL Server? SharePoint?), who would use it, what it did, or why it matter.&nbsp;And I always like to include at least three high-level topics the attendee will leave having learned.</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;">Having said all of that, I feel like there's no better write-up of how to write a top quality session abstracts that in the blog post by Adam Machanic (<a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/adam_machanic/default.aspx">b</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/#!/AdamMachanic">t</a>)&nbsp;entitled "<a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/adam_machanic/archive/2013/02/22/capturing-attention-writing-great-session-descriptions.aspx">Capturing Attention: Writing Great Session Descriptions</a>". This is&nbsp;<em>such a good overview of doing abstract writing the right way&nbsp;</em>that I wish technical conferences would make this required reading for their speaker submissions. (Are you listening&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sqlsaturday.com/">SQL Saturday</a>?)</p><h2 style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:21px;">Planning and Building Your Presentation</h2><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;">A lot of accomplished speakers who've done one-hour sessions become both excited and terrified about doing a full 7- to 8-hour session. And one of the first fears that people share with me is that they won't have enough to say or that they'll be able to fill the time. Believe me - this will&nbsp;<em><strong>not</strong>&nbsp;</em>be your problem. In fact, if you properly research your presentation and read what other writers and bloggers have to say, you will have difficulty fitting everything you want to talk about within your allotted time.</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;">Here are some planning tips I use for planning and building my sessions:</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;"><span style="line-height:1.5em;">1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I estimate that I’ll speak 3 minutes per slide. Then I do the math for how many slides I can fit into the amount time I have in the given session slot. For example, a 75 minute session should not have more than 20’ish slides, taking into account some time for the introductory and closing slides, questions, and demos.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;">2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Attendees are idiots AND geniuses simultaneously. One surprising thing I’ve learned after averaging about 6 pre-cons per year for the last few years is that no one reads the session-level advice (i.e. whether it’s a 200, 300, or 400 level session). They always read the titles, and possibly skim the abstract, and then make their decision based on that.</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;padding-left:30px;">a.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Here’s an&nbsp;<b>important part tip</b>&nbsp;for your presentation</i>: you will definitely have plenty, maybe even a surprising number, of attendees who don’t know the basics of your topic. For example, in a recent pre-con called "<em><a href="http://sqlperformance.com/2014/04/sql-performance/sql-intersection-slides-and-samples">50 Things Every SQL Developer Should Know</a>"</em>&nbsp;that my buddy, Aaron Bertrand (<a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/aaron_bertrand/rss.aspx">b</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/#!/AaronBertrand">t</a>) and I presented at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sqlintersection.com/">SQL Intersection</a>, I&nbsp;now include a whole section discussing how the plan cache works and how to read execution plans. I clearly told attendees that they needed to know those things as prerequisites, but I’d say about 40-50% of the attendees in fact&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration:underline;">did not</span>&nbsp;know the fundamentals.</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;padding-left:30px;">b.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>At the same time</i>: You will have attendees who are quite advanced. I try to identify those kinds of attendees early on (often by explicitly asking who has a lot of experience), then I try to include them as&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration:underline;"><em>allies</em></span>&nbsp;in the presentation. I ask their feedback a lot and give them a lot of eye contact. If there’s a question that seems tough, I might turn towards them and say “Have you ever seen that in your shop? How did you deal with it?” Usually, if they’re experienced and knowledgeable, then they love to share. It’s often as enjoyable for them to be recognized as smart as it would be to learn some big, new skill or technique. That helps keeps both ends of the talent spectrum equally happy.</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;"><a href="http://kevinekline.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/IMG_1754.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-5885" alt="IMG_1754" width="177" height="300" style="border:0px;cursor:default;display:block;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;" src="http://kevinekline.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/IMG_1754-177x300.jpg"></a></p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;">3.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Demos are the most stressful part of even one-hour sessions. It’s an order of magnitude worse in a day-long session. In my case, I strive for a high degree of deliberately assessed order and standardization:</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;padding-left:30px;"><span style="line-height:1.5em;">a.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><em style="line-height:1.5em;"><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Never</span></em><span style="line-height:1.5em;">&nbsp;install new software or change your configuration within 48 hours of your presentation. If some enterprise policy forces a change, assume the worst and retest all of your demos.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;padding-left:30px;">b.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Include in the PPT notes panel the exact path and filename for a demo file that a particular slide relates to. It's not as important if you recently wrote the slide deck. But it becomes&nbsp;<em>very&nbsp;</em>important if you wrote the session a while ago and no longer know all of the facts cold about your demos. &nbsp;For that matter,&nbsp;I’m now putting a number prefix on all of my SQL scripts so I can see which to load into SSMS in what order. Also, SSMS orders open tabs automatically. So numbering them works much better than giving only an alphabetic name.</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;padding-left:30px;">c.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; If you’re running short on time, explain the concepts and tell where attendees can find the demo scripts, but skip the demos themselves.</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;padding-left:30px;">d.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; One thing I’ve started to do, especially for really complex or annoying demos (e.g. a demo involving multiple servers such as a big Availability Group), is to either screenshot the whole demo process or make a video of the demo using&nbsp;<a href="http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.html">Camtasia</a>. Then I show the slides or the video instead of the real work environment. That way I can illustrate the principles involved without ever risking something going wrong. Attendees don’t seem to mind at all.</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;padding-left:30px;">e.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;This is so axiomatic that I shouldn't have to mention it, but just in case, create your demos in such a way that they require very little new typing. If you have to do more than change a parameter or two, then you need to work on your demos a bit more.</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;">4.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;For goodness' sake, get to the room as early as is practical and get comfortable with the learning environment. Expect problems with setup. Many laptops have issues with certain types of projects and require a lot of tinkering to get working properly. &nbsp;And carry spare equipment for crazy and unexpected issues. Batteries for your wireless mouse is practical, of course, but other mind-boggling things can happen. For example, I've spoken at many facilities which&nbsp;<em>did not have an electrical outlet anywhere near the podium</em>. My lesson learned? I always carry a 3m extension chord.</p><h2 style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:21px;">Making the Session Memorable</h2><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;">There are several small tips and tricks you can use to make sure your session is memorable and well-regarded. (And when you have well-regarded sessions, you get invited to do&nbsp;<em>more</em>&nbsp;session. It's a positive feedback loop, engineers!) Here are some of my favorite techniques:</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;">1.&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Work with a co-presenter</strong></span>. Personally, I&nbsp;<em>love&nbsp;</em>working with co-presenters. This might not be your cup of tea, since you have to split revenue, and I can respect that. But hear me out. On the one hand, the shared workload for both writing and presenting the pre-con is much easier. And don't forget that most of us aren't used to standing or speaking for 8-hrs straight. So being able to tag-team with another presenter off and on through the day can be like mana from heaven at times when you're flagging. On the other hand, audiences find&nbsp;<em>dialogue</em>&nbsp;much more entertaining than&nbsp;<em>monologue.&nbsp;</em>Have you ever noticed that the morning radio show on your drive to work is no longer a single, lonely DJ? There is almost always at least two and sometimes as many as a half-dozen people on the "<em>!!WKRP Morning Team!! Caffeinate your day!!</em>" show, and sometimes even skits and almost-comedy bits. People just enjoy that format more and it translates into measurably ratings for the radio stations. It will for you too.</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;">2.&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Quiz the attendees as you go along</strong></span>. You want people to remember your session and, even better, recommend it to others. One trick that I learned when I was trying to master recall of names is to repeat a person's name back a time or two before the introduction concludes. You can use this tip, as a presenter, to help your attendees remember aspects of your session. After you've advanced the slide, find a reason to ask a question relevant to an earlier slide. In some cases, I've started to substitute old fashioned slide notes pages (i.e. a list of standard bullet points) for a quiz sheet, which is essential the same list of bullet points with a single key word as a fill-in-the-blank. The attendees will really get into making sure those blanks are filled it. If you miss one, they'll make you go back and tell them what goes in the blank. (<em>Hooray! They were paying attention!</em>) Make it fun. Tease them jokingly if they forgot something you just talked about. But keep the attendees engaged and mindful of the major lessons.</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;">3.&nbsp;<strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Provide useful&nbsp;takeaways</span></strong>. Attendees love to be able to reference a list of takeaways. Just think about all the great sessions you have ever been to before. They usually have some level of detail for you to consume easily and walk away with or reference later. They have clean demo scripts with lots of comments that would stand on their own without slides or someone speaking. They offer the attendee the ability to be immersed in the "here and now" and the ability to come back for a summary to jog their memory. In my case, I actually have a password protected area of my website where attendees can download the slide decks and demo scripts to all of my pre-cons. My theory being that the attendee has paid for this training, so I want to provide an incentive for them to view me as one of the Go-To references going forward, to encourage them to attend other pre-cons of mine, and to nudge them to promote me to others.</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;">Well, that’s my BULK INSERT for pulling off a successful and repeatable pre-con. Have you done a full day training session yourself? What sort of techniques have you learned to make your session more effective and memorable? Share your thoughts and questions here.</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;">Many thanks,</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;">-Kevin</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;"><a href="http://twitter.com/kekline">-Follow me on Twitter!</a><br><a href="https://plus.google.com/u/1/113032055249023350257?rel=author">-Google Author</a></p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:21px;">&nbsp;</p>What Does a Good Mentor Do for You?http://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2014/01/13/what-does-a-good-mentor-do-for-you.aspxMon, 13 Jan 2014 18:21:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:52551KKline<p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:20.98958396911621px;"><a href="http://kevinekline.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/1417634_10151781045013107_1245313907_o.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-5831" alt="KevinEKline.com Mentors" width="300" height="200" style="border:0px;cursor:default;display:block;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;" src="http://kevinekline.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/1417634_10151781045013107_1245313907_o-300x200.jpg"></a></p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:20.98958396911621px;text-align:center;"><em>These would be good mentors - me plus Adam Machanic, and Klaus Aschenbrenner</em></p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:20.98958396911621px;">Not long ago,&nbsp;John Sansom (<a href="https://twitter.com/#!/sqlbrit">Twitter</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.johnsansom.com/">Blog</a>) kicked off a&nbsp;SQL Community Project #DBAJumpStart by&nbsp;asking 20 successful and experienced SQL Server professionals this exact question:</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:20.98958396911621px;text-align:center;"><em>"If you could give a DBA just one piece of advice, what would it be?"</em></p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:20.98958396911621px;">I wrote up my&nbsp;<a title="Kevin E. Kline's Advice for the Aspiring DBA" href="http://kevinekline.com/2013/12/10/one-piece-of-advice-for-the-aspiring-junior-dba/">Advice for the Aspiring DBA post here</a>, while John collected the entire set of responses here within the&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://www.johnsansom.com/dba-jumpstart/">DBA JumpStart</a>&nbsp;collection. Part of my advice, indeed of several of the contributors, was to find and build a strong mentor-protege relationship. &nbsp;But what does that really mean? What does a mentor do for you?</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:20.98958396911621px;">&nbsp;</p><h2 style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:20.98958396911621px;"><span style="font-size:14px;line-height:1.5em;">Meaningful Mentors</span></h2><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:20.98958396911621px;"><span style="line-height:1.5em;">First of all, a successful mentor acts on behalf of their protege, with an eye to the their profession development and, if they work for the same company, for the betterment of their mutual employer. Here are several things successful mentors do:</span></p><ol style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:20.98958396911621px;"><li><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Model the behavior a protege should emulate</strong></span>: In the IT world, there are few areas where the protege has bigger blind spots than in handling interpersonal situations. Yes, we're great at handling technology, but not so good with politics and persuasion. So when you encounter a mentor who effectively models confidence, competence, professionalism and integrity, you can be certain that his is a person to emulate. &nbsp;(And as a potential protege, keep in mind that you don't want a mentor who acts in a way that you don't want to emulate).</li><li><span style="line-height:1.5em;"><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Move the mentor-protege relationship forward</strong></span>: &nbsp;I personally believe that the onus is upon the protege to initiate and carry most of the water in the relationship. But a successful mentor will stay cognizant of the status of the relationship and help to keep it moving in a positive way. We want a mentor who notices when we've disappeared or gone quiet for a couple months.</span></li><li><span style="line-height:1.5em;"><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Introspection</strong></span>: It's rare for a mentor to be approached by a person without ambition. The flip side is that ambitious people are often somewhat less introspective and attuned to their own flaws. Just like with coaches in sports, mentors in your profession help the protege understand their strengths and weaknesses and how to amplify or mitigate them, respectively.</span></li><li><span style="line-height:1.5em;"><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Sponsorship</strong></span>: Good mentors know that learning skills takes practice. Consequently, a good mentor is on the lookout for ways to apply the skills and abilities of their proteges. In my own case, I frequently try to connect my proteges with speaking and volunteering opportunities that increase their prestige, introducing them to important contacts, and helping to broker new relationships.&nbsp;</span></li><li><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Wisdom</strong></span>: Sometimes a protege needs help with personal matters that aren't work or career related. In many situations, a good mentor will help their protege work through emotion issues and explore, in a respectful way, an open dialog that can help the protege gain perspective on their situation. This might be a scenario like working through a confrontational work situation which is actually motivated by a emotional reason that is simmering just beneath the surface.</li><li><span style="line-height:1.5em;"><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Teach</strong></span>: Depending on the work environment, good mentors can teach key technical skills needed to be successful in a particular job. In a sense, they teach competency. &nbsp;But in technology, so many of our successes are driving by non-technical factors. I've found over time that my mentors taught me important lessons in setting priorities, recognized the true motivations of people I interact with, and focusing on results-oriented activity.</span></li><li><span style="line-height:1.5em;"><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Inspire</strong></span>: Whenever I begin a new mentor-protege relationship, I begin with values and passions. What does my protege really care about? What get's them excited about the day ahead? Many times proteges don't even realize why they're earning their daily bread, aside from the paycheck. And many other times, proteges have no idea what they can achieve. As a mentor, we want to awaken creativity and inspire the protege to act upon those creative impulses. "I want to become a recognized authority and speak at events all over the world!" is something I hear frequently from proteges. Yes. It's definitely in your grasp. But how does the protege react after their first disastrous presentation. Many, who don't have a mentor to bolster their spirits and make the ordeal an uplifting learning experience, throw in the towel and vow to never make that mistake again. &nbsp;Good mentors can help them to see through the hard times to the&nbsp;<em>even better</em>&nbsp;times ahead.</span></li></ol><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:20.98958396911621px;">If you've made it this far, you're probably digesting all of the recommendations. And perhaps you're thinking about times in the past where you had a mentor who you respected and who provided you with a lot of help. &nbsp;I'm sure that they didn't do every single thing on the list. &nbsp;But they probably did several if not most of the activities on the list.</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:20.98958396911621px;">Whether you're currently a mentor, or a protege, or hope to be one or the other in the future, keep in mind the behaviors that enable a mentor to succeed. As a protege, look for these behaviors in your mentor.&nbsp;<i>Ask for them</i>, if need be. &nbsp;As a mentor, take an inventory of whether you do enough of these to truly be a valuable and trusted confident of your protege.</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:20.98958396911621px;">By giving of ourselves, as mentors or proteges, we build much stronger relationships based on amity and intimacy. In our go-go, hyper-fast internet-driven world, that's one thing I never get enough of.</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:20.98958396911621px;">What's your opinion? What was your best mentor like?</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:20.98958396911621px;">-Kevin</p><p style="margin-bottom:1.3em;font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:14.44444465637207px;line-height:20.98958396911621px;"><a href="http://twitter.com/kekline">-Follow me on Twitter!</a><br><a href="https://plus.google.com/u/1/113032055249023350257?rel=author">-Google Author</a></p>Now Playing on SSWUG TV!http://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2013/09/10/now-playing-on-sswug-tv.aspxTue, 10 Sep 2013 17:45:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:50939KKline<p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px;line-height:18.99305534362793px;">Hi friends,</p>
<p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px;line-height:18.99305534362793px;">I know a lot of you regularly read my blog either on my home page at&nbsp;<a mce_href="http://KevinEKline.com" href="http://KevinEKline.com">KevinEKline.com</a>, on&nbsp;<a mce_href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/default.aspx" href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/default.aspx">SQLBlog.com</a>, or one of the locations where it's syndicated. And you may also regularly take in my content on&nbsp;<a mce_href="http://sqlsentry.tv" href="http://sqlsentry.tv">SQLSentry.TV</a>&nbsp;or my monthly column on&nbsp;<a mce_href="http://www.dbta.com/Articles/MoreNews.aspx?ContextID=329" href="http://www.dbta.com/Articles/MoreNews.aspx?ContextID=329"><i>Database Trends &amp; Applications&nbsp;</i>magazine</a>.</p>
<p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px;line-height:18.99305534362793px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px;line-height:18.99305534362793px;"><a mce_href="http://www.sswug.org/pro/playerpage.aspx?id=2704" href="http://www.sswug.org/pro/playerpage.aspx?id=2704"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-5740" alt="KevinEKline.com on SSWUG.org" width="300" height="153" style="border:0px;cursor:default;display:block;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;" src="http://kevinekline.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/SSWUG-03-300x153.jpg"></a></p>
<p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px;line-height:18.99305534362793px;text-align:center;"><i><b>Click the image</b>&nbsp;<b>to see my new weekly video series on SSWUG.org!</b></i></p>
<p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px;line-height:18.99305534362793px;">Now I'm adding a new video format to the mix, in partnership with my friend Steven Wynkoop and&nbsp;<a mce_href="http://www.sswug.org/pro/playerpage.aspx?id=2704" href="http://www.sswug.org/pro/playerpage.aspx?id=2704">SSWUG.org</a>. &nbsp;I've been a frequent speaker in the SSWUG virtual conferences over the past several years and, we thought, why not make this a more frequent occurrence than twice per year?</p>
<p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px;line-height:18.99305534362793px;">For the next several episodes, I'll be discussing new features that will be released in SQL Server 2014. &nbsp;However, I'd love to make it interactive. &nbsp;So if you have any topics that are keenly interesting to you which are part of my regular repertoire (SQL Server, SQL, other database platforms like Oracle, database design, enterprise architecture, cloud computing, professional development, and leading IT teams), then please drop me a note. I'd love to hear from you.</p>
<p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px;line-height:18.99305534362793px;">-Kevin</p>
<p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px;line-height:18.99305534362793px;"><a mce_href="http://KevinEKline.com" href="http://KevinEKline.com">-Read more content at KevinEKline.com</a></p><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px;line-height:18.99305534362793px;"><a mce_href="http://KevinEKline.com" href="http://KevinEKline.com"></a><a mce_href="http://twitter.com/kekline" style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;line-height:18.99305534362793px;" href="http://twitter.com/kekline">-Follow me on Twitter!</a></p><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;font-size:13.333333969116211px;line-height:18.99305534362793px;"><a mce_href="https://plus.google.com/u/1/113032055249023350257?rel=author" href="https://plus.google.com/u/1/113032055249023350257?rel=author">-Google Author</a></p>The Year That Was - 2012http://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2012/12/31/the-year-that-was-2012.aspxMon, 31 Dec 2012 19:31:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:46909KKline<p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">2012 was, simply stated, a year that kicked my butt. &nbsp;When I wasn't struggling professionally, I was struggling personally. &nbsp;Health issues, culminating in a diagnosis of Type II diabetes, and the passing of my father soon after Thanksgiving marked my biggest struggles. &nbsp;I apologize to those of you who are normally on my Christmas card list for not sending any this year. The wind was not in my sails. &nbsp;On the positive side of the ledger, I made a scary but exciting leap to&nbsp;<a title="SQL Server and Windows Tools for the IT Professional that Knows Better" href="http://sqlsentry.net/">SQL Sentry</a>&nbsp;midyear. This was a huge shake-up after 10 years with my previous employer, but one which has been met with unbridled enthusiasm everywhere I've gone. &nbsp;Thank you for the handshakes, high-fives, and hugs! &nbsp;We're doing some really exciting things at SQL Sentry (such as&nbsp;<a href="http://sqlperformance.com/">SQLPerformance.com</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a title="SQL Sentry Plan Explorer and Plan Explorer Pro" href="http://www.sqlsentry.net/plan-explorer/sql-server-query-view.asp">Plan Explorer Pro</a>) and I hope to engage with you more than ever in 2013.</p><h2 style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">Blogging Activity, Plus Leadership Skills &amp; Professionalism</h2><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">2012 marked a bit of a shift in my content creation direction. &nbsp;I've seen an uptick in struggles in the non-IT part of our career - communications, leadership, motivation, goal-keeping, all of those sort of things. &nbsp;I feel like I have some wisdom to contribute in that space. &nbsp;So, in addition to technical blog posts, I been putting down more of my experiences and lessons learned on the interpersonal side of the IT career path. &nbsp;My top ten blog posts for the year reflect some of that new direction:</p><ul style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;"><li><a href="http://kevinekline.com/2012/08/13/do-you-have-one-of-the-three-ws-to-sit-on-a-board-of-directors/">Do You Have One of "the Three W’s" to Sit on a Board of Directors?</a>&nbsp; -- Important tips for any IT pro considering a role in strategy and executive leadership.</li><li><a href="http://kevinekline.com/2012/09/05/timewarp-what-is-a-relational-database/">Timewarp: What Is a Relational Database?</a>&nbsp;-- With all the talk about NoSQL databases, let's go back to the fundamentals.</li><li><a href="http://kevinekline.com/2012/02/22/want-another-reason-to-hate-itunes/">Want Another Reason to Hate iTunes?</a>&nbsp;-- A throw-away article that precipitated a maelstrom of comments. Them Apple fanboys are&nbsp;<em>passionate!</em></li><li><a href="http://kevinekline.com/2012/03/09/why-do-it-pros-make-awful-managers/">Why Do IT Pros Make Awful Managers?</a>&nbsp;-- Not all IT pros make awful managers, but when they're awful it's often for similar reasons.</li><li><a href="http://kevinekline.com/2012/07/26/high-availability-white-papers-and-resources-for-sql-server/">High-Availability White Papers and Resources for SQL Server</a>&nbsp;-- Read the latest about AlwaysOn Availability Groups, and more.</li><li><a href="http://kevinekline.com/2012/04/25/new-white-paper-sql-server-extended-events-and-notifications/">New White Paper: SQL Server Extended Events and Notifications</a>&nbsp;-- SQL Server 2012 great augments the Extended Events feature set. Find out how.</li><li><a href="http://kevinekline.com/2012/05/03/build-your-own-microsoft-operations-manager-pack/">Build Your Own Microsoft Operations Management Pack</a>&nbsp;-- Resources to build out your own SCOM management pack.</li><li><a href="http://kevinekline.com/2012/09/12/help-me-update-the-history-of-sql-server/">Help Me Update the History of SQL Server</a>&nbsp;-- I started with SQL Server when it was still an OS/2 product. Jeesh! Lots of versions have come out since then.</li><li>TIE:&nbsp;<a href="http://kevinekline.com/2012/06/28/recorded-webcast-available-extend-scom-to-optimize-sql-server-performance-management/">Recorded Webcast Available: Extend SCOM to Optimize SQL Server Performance Management</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://kevinekline.com/2012/03/19/the-experts-conference-tec-for-ad-sharepoint-exchange-powershell-and-other-admins/">The Expert's Conference (TEC) - For AD, SharePoint, Exchange, PowerShell and Other Admins</a>&nbsp;-- Pointers to a webcast about extending SCOM and the TEC conference.</li><li><a href="http://kevinekline.com/2012/07/11/a-fond-farewell-to-quest-software/">A Fond Farewell to Quest Software</a>&nbsp;-- I learned&nbsp;<em>so much</em>&nbsp;in 10 years at Quest Software.</li></ul><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">As I mentioned in the opening paragraph about blogging, I'm putting more energy into best practices for professional growth among IT pros. &nbsp;Along those lines of thought, I started a website called&nbsp;<a href="http://www.foritpros.com/">ForITPros.com</a>&nbsp;with my long-time friend Joe Webb (<a href="https://twitter.com/#!/joewebb">Twitter</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://www.webbtechsolutions.com/blog">Blog</a>) and, in partnership with&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sswug.org/">SSWUG</a>, developed a 2-DVD set and streaming media class called&nbsp;<a title="Kevin E. Kline's Leadership Skills for IT Professionals" href="http://www.vconferenceonline.com/event/sessions.aspx?id=671">Leadership Skills for IT Professionals</a>&nbsp;containing 14 hours of leadership and soft skills training specifically crafted for IT teams.</p><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">I've also been working with PASS on the Professional Development Virtual Chapter (VC), led by Mark Caldwell (<a href="http://twitter.com/ajarnmark">Twitter</a>). &nbsp;We've already got a full year of content schedule and are trying to figure out how fit in more sessions. &nbsp;Maybe moving to more than one webcast per month? &nbsp;The&nbsp;<a href="http://professionaldevelopment.sqlpass.org/Blog/authorid/33179.aspx">PASS Professional Development VC archive</a>&nbsp;has lots of great content for you to review and future sessions are detailed at the&nbsp;<a href="http://professionaldevelopment.sqlpass.org/">PASS Professional Development VC homepage</a>.</p><h2 style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">In-Person Activity</h2><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">2012 was busy where I actually appeared in person or put in a big effort to write or create content. &nbsp;Here's a run-down: Articles (2),&nbsp;Conference Spoken (12),&nbsp;Customer Calls (88),&nbsp;Customer Visits (4),&nbsp;Magazine Columns (14) at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sqlmag.com/blogcontent/seriespath/tool-time-blog-16">SQLMag.com</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dbta.com/Authors/3536-Kevin-Kline.htm">DBTA.com</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://kevinekline.com/bibliography/">New Books (1) with Ross Mistry</a>, PASS Chapter Presentations (12),&nbsp;Pre-cons/Full-day Seminars (4),&nbsp;<a title="SQL Saturday, presented by the Professional Association for SQL Server" href="http://www.sqlsaturday.com/">SQL Saturdays</a>&nbsp;(4),&nbsp;<a title="SQL Server Worldwide User Group" href="http://www.sswug.org/">SSWUG</a>&nbsp;Sessions (4), TechNet Radio Broadcasts (2), Technical Book Reviews (3), and&nbsp;Webcasts (10).</p><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">In 2013, I expect to travel a bit less. &nbsp;But I also expect to do many more webcasts. &nbsp;Let me know if you have some ideas about what you'd like to learn! &nbsp;One business trip that I refuse to give up, though, is&nbsp;<a href="http://sqlcruise.com/2013-cruises/">SQLCruise</a>. &nbsp;(Register!) &nbsp;I know it sounds like the&nbsp;<em>worst possible way to learn</em>. I mean who'd want to learn on a cruise ship in the Caribbean?!? &nbsp;(I hope you could detect the sarcasm dripping from those two sentences.) &nbsp;But here are two favorite aspects of of SQLCruise that are totally ferreals - 1) You simultaneously can relax and focus on learning. &nbsp;You are disconnected from the mainland. &nbsp;You don't have to worry about the mobile phone going off. &nbsp;2) You get extended ours in a intimate setting with&nbsp;<em>the top talent in the SQL Server world</em>. &nbsp;It's always a pleasure to attend a conference session from the best in the industry. &nbsp;But you'll get&nbsp;<em>hours&nbsp;</em>of time to talk with these veterans of the industry about your specific problems and situations. &nbsp;It just doesn't get better than that.</p><h2 style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">Social Media</h2><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">It's hard to believe that only a year ago,&nbsp;2011, was my first year on&nbsp;<a title="Kevin Kline's twitter feed" href="http://twitter.com/kekline">Twitter</a>. By years end, here's where my stats had moved: 5,507 tweets (up from 3,452 tweets), 661 following (up from 531), &nbsp;and 3,720 followers (up from 2,656) . &nbsp;I didn't check my social media numbers last year, so I've got no point of comparison. But I'm currently sitting at 2,327 LinkedIn connections and 1,157 Facebook friends. &nbsp;One of my standing policies on Facebook is that I don't "friend" someone who I haven't personally met. &nbsp;That doesn't help detangle the hopeless mess I've created by having only one identify on Facebook, both personal and public. &nbsp;So, on the one hand, I owe all of my longtime friends a big apology for all of the SQL talk and, on the other hand, a big apology to all of my professional friends for not posting&nbsp;<em>enough&nbsp;</em>news and advice while dilute my status updates with personal minutia. Oh well - it is what it is.</p><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">My blogging activity for 2012 was the lowest it's been in many years, down to 44 entries, down from 77 in 2011 and well into the hundreds in 2010. &nbsp;My answer to that sort of&nbsp;doldrums for 2013 is to get sloppy! And by that, I mean less of a perfectionist and more of a content machine that&nbsp;<em>just cranks it out</em>! &nbsp;Most of you, as my readers, have been very forgiving of a misplaced verb, a missing punctuation, or -heck- a totally malformed sentence that makes no sense at all. &nbsp;So I'm going to try much harder to churn through&nbsp;the 700+ nascent blog posts in my notes folder and get those ideas out there!</p><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">I hope to see you following me on&nbsp;<a title="Kevin Kline's twitter feed" href="http://twitter.com/kekline">Twitter</a>&nbsp;soon! Thanks,</p><p style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif;line-height:19px;">-Kevin</p>Do You Have One of &quot;the Three W’s&quot; to Sit on a Board of Directors?http://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2012/08/13/do-you-have-one-of-the-three-w-s-to-sit-on-a-board-of-directors.aspxMon, 13 Aug 2012 17:28:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:44692KKline<p>Let’s get one thing clear right off the bat – I’m not typing “Board of Directors” repeatedly throughout this blog post. It’s just too much typing. BoD will have to do. Live with it.</p><p>Perhaps, you’ve been paying attention to the PASS Twitter feed, read the newsletters, or otherwise stay abreast of happenings within PASS. If you haven’t, here’s a news alert – it’s time for a new round of the <a title="SQLPASS Board of Directors" href="http://www.sqlpass.org/AboutPASS/BoardofDirectors.aspx">PASS leadership</a> cycle. And since <a title="PASS Elections Information" href="http://www.sqlpass.org/Elections.aspx">this is the season of PASS nominations</a>, I thought it’d be an appropriate time to share some of my lessons learned about effective BoDs.</p><p><a href="http://kevinekline.com/wp-admin/null"><img class="alignright" src="http://www.eweek.com/images/stories/slideshows/ms2008review/ms2008review03.jpg" width="384" height="288"></a>Having spent over a decade sitting on various BoD’s, I can testify that the most effective directors are those that bring at least one of <em>the three W’s </em>to the table. (I learned the three W's from a former executive director of PASS, Jon Lindberg). Note that the three W’s are not characteristics or traits. They are <em>behaviors</em>, that is, observable sets of activities. The keywords in the previous sentence are <em>observable </em>and <em>activities</em>. You might have every intention in the world of doing the three W's. But if other people on the BoD cannot observe that you are performing the actions, they don't exist. The three W behaviors are Wealth, Work, and Wisdom. They’re major behaviors in my leadership ethos, called <em>servant leadership</em>. (I’ll talk about servant leadership in another post at some time).</p><p>Let’s talk about the three W’s in detail:</p><h2><strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Wealth</span></strong></h2><p style="padding-left:30px;">This is simple and direct. Some directors come to the boardroom with a checkbook and they’re willing to use it to further the goals of the organization. Because they fund strategic initiatives of the organization in cash or in-kind, they literally change the reality for the organization. Directors with this W remove barriers and constraints that would otherwise end many discussions and initiatives before they got off the ground due to lack of resources.</p><p style="padding-left:30px;">However, directors with wealth are usually their as a part of their job. In other words, their employer has a strategic reason for supporting the success of the organization. Therefore, directors with wealth often seek to ensure that the organization is tracking against certain high-level goals that coincide with the goals of their employer. This is not to say that such directors have ulterior motives. They are typically very ethical and insightful members of a given BoD. But this perspective also means that a director with wealth may be interested in activities or metrics which other directors have considered. After all, if you were to pony up big dollars for a new initiative on your child’s soccer team (say, new training equipment) you’d also want to ensure that money was spent to greatest effect.</p><p style="padding-left:30px;">Note that wealth doesn’t always mean cash. It can mean many other things - your presence is a form of value. (Many times, directors come to BoD meetings and proceed to work on their email. That's a major breach of sharing your wealth of knowledge). Here’s a more concrete example. Back in the early 2000’s, around 2003, PASS received a significant amount of <em>in-kind </em>support from Compaq Corporation at the encouragement of then Microsoft liaison and board member Ryan Trout. (In-kind support, by the way, is support that has a cash value, but is an action or activity offered instead of actual cash). In effect, Compaq conducted a major direct mail campaign to their sizeable SQL Server user base to help drive attendance at the PASS Summit and to encourage interest in both the international organization and local user groups. This contribution marked a major turning point for PASS both in terms of high-level vendor support and in visibility to the SQL Server user community.</p><p style="padding-left:30px;"> <em>Axiom</em><em>: The golden rule, for directors with wealth, is “he who has the gold makes the rules” with all the positive and negative connotations that holds</em><strong><em>.</em></strong></p><h2><strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Work</span></strong></h2><p style="padding-left:30px;">There’s no getting around the fact that the directors who are most willing to invest personal time and energy are the most effective. (And I mean the term “effective” in the most literal sense of “having a measurable effect on the enterprise”). In a typical strategically-oriented board, the extent of work is usually to remain current on all important reading material, to strive to be aware of shareholder issues and concerns, and to formulate opinions on important strategies for the organization to consider or implement as a form of guidance for the CEO and COO.</p><p style="padding-left:30px;">In a portfolio-oriented board, such as the structure used by PASS and many other large IT professional associations (including most of the other major database BoD’s such as <a title="The Independent Oracle User Group" href="http://www.ioug.org/">IOUG</a>, <a title="The International DB2 User Group" href="http://idug.org/">IDUG</a>, ISUG, ITUG, and <a title="IBM's International User Group" href="http://share.org/">Share</a>), directors not only have the burden of the strategic director, but also act as the head of a specific function of the organization. For example, in a portfolio-oriented BoD, a single director might be responsible for growing and guiding the local chapters of the association (the Chapter Portfolio), another might be responsible for driving value back to members (the Membership Portfolio), a third might be responsible for the selection and implementation of the content delivered at major events (the Program Portfolio), and so on. There is no doubt that some directors are much more effective than others at managing a portfolio and leading a group of volunteers within that portfolio.</p><p style="padding-left:30px;">While a full discussion of the best practices that make some directors really effective at this second W could fill a couple additional posts, I’ll put a few quick hallmarks here in case you’re curious:</p><h3 style="padding-left:60px;"><strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Priorities</span></strong></h3><p style="padding-left:60px;">Smart directors set their sights on a very short list of <a title="SMART Criteria For Goals" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria">goals that follow the SMART standard</a>. And by “short list”, I mean a list with no more than three goals. The goals are achievable and, usually, not terribly expensive nor complex to implement. If one of their top goals turns out to be much more expensive or complex to get rolling, then they move on to their next most important goal that is easily achievable.</p><p style="padding-left:60px;"> <em>Axiom: It is better to make small, measurable gains than to set big goals that never get accomplished.</em></p><h3 style="padding-left:60px;"><strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Alignment</span></strong></h3><p style="padding-left:60px;">Smart directors make sure that the goals they’re working to achieve complement the overall strategy of the organization. This alignment provides a strong incentive for other members of the BoD to back their proposals and to act as allies in the event that a board vote is needed to settle the way resources will be directed or whether a proposed goal is accepted by the board as a new policy or program. Alignment of goals with the top-level strategy of the organization also means that successor directors will have a much easier time continuing where the original board member left off because the work simply makes sense. Plus, when a director’s goals seem unusual or very different than other goals of the organization, organizational resistance is sure to come in to play.</p><p style="padding-left:60px;"><em>Axiom</em>: <em>Unless there’s an emergency, it is better to couch visionary change within the overall strategy of the organization than it is to introduce changes that represent a major shift in long-standing culture, priorities, or processes.</em></p><h3 style="padding-left:60px;"><strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Focus</span></strong></h3><p style="padding-left:60px;">Directors who have a short list of goals are also much more successful when they devote their energies to …, oh wait a sec, gotta check email. Just kidding. But I hope you get the idea.</p><p style="padding-left:60px;">I’ve seen a lot of brilliant individual directors who, upon prioritizing their work, spent enormous amounts of time and energy working on other people’s problems, working on their own issues at the wrong level, or talking about an issue way after its major parameters have been decided. I’m not saying stop helping others or stop discussions. But I am saying that a portfolio director must remember that the success of their team is <em>their</em> success. Many IT professionals are used to being individual contributors and so they feel that if they’re busy and working hard, it must be good, right? <em><strong>No</strong></em>. If the director isn’t working to achieve the goals of <em>their</em> portfolio, they’re basically not working at all. Here are some common traps that damage focus:</p><p style="padding-left:60px;">A common way IT pros on a BoD lose their focus is to <em>get into the details</em> of a new program or process. For example, say that PASS wanted to introduce a cool new feature on their website. An unfocused director would immediately begin to start designing the system in their mind – “We’ll use Active Directory to authenticate new users and then they’ll connect to the services using that cool REST-ful technology I’ve wanted to try. And maybe we could use SSIS packages to…” You get the picture. The BoD hasn't even fully fleshed out the business plan for the new program and yet this director is off and running after the specific technological solution to the problem. The problem that is not yet fully mapped out and understood. Remember, directors are supposed to assess and manage the business value of any given process or new organization program, not sling code. By focusing on the intimate details of the technology first, the director short-changes the business value of the initiative. It's like the programmer who starts writing code before any requirements are understood or documented. I’ve seen directors invest huge amounts of time into initiative which, in the broad analysis, were only half-baked and not worth pursuing. The focus must for a director, first and foremost, be about business value. (As a side-bar to this line of thought, many directors are the only person who can make certain important decisions. If that person is encumbered with relatively routine but demanding work, they actually shortchange the organization of their true value. If the VP of Finance is spending a lot of time working on a technology problem, they're not just working on technology - they're also NOT WORKING on financial matters).</p><p style="padding-left:60px;"> Another common mistake that IT pros make when managing a portfolio is failing at delegation. IT pros, as I mentioned earlier, are usually most successful when they’re a strong individual contributor. They’re used to being judged on their own technical skill. They’re not used to being judged on the success of a team. Consequently, inexperienced directors frequently under-delegate and/or under-communicate which leaves volunteers feeling unwanted and unimportant. In the same vein, directors may act rudely to their committee members or other volunteers, or may simply treat them like employees –definitely not the way to treat a volunteer. This behavior is like torching your own support network. Volunteers can quickly become demoralized, or even quit, when they feel unproductive or unwanted.</p><p style="padding-left:60px;"> <em>Axiom</em>: <em>As a smart director of a portfolio, it is better to focus on business outcomes and the success of the team than it is to perform the detailed work yourself.</em></p><h2> <strong><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Wisdom</span></strong></h2><p style="padding-left:60px;">Dictionary.com tells me that wisdom is “<em>knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action</em>”. Money cannot buy wisdom. It can only be earned through many years of manifold experiences. Some young people are wise and insightful, but frankly it’s usually the grey-headed types who’ve usually lived through enough dumb decisions to recognize when a pattern in a social situation or set of human behaviors is being repeated. A great example of wisdom on the PASS board comes from the two CA representatives who sit on the board, Neil Buchwalter and Rick Bolesta. In addition to serving on the PASS board for perhaps longer than any other sitting board member, they’ve also both sat on other boards before and concurrently with the PASS board. Their stability, deep history, and analysis of the interplay between people (or groups of people) are extremely important to the successful workings of the board.</p><p style="padding-left:60px;">You might thing, based on what I’ve said described about wisdom, that a wise director is prone to pontificate and engage in long-winded discourse. Nothing could be further from the truth in my experience. The typical wise director tends to be brief, interjecting comments and thoughts of great weight and importance. What they say is usually worth careful consideration. Conversely, directors who spend a lot of time talking are often the least worth listening to. Many long-winded directors often use discussion to figure out what it is they really think about a given situation. Wise directors already know what they think and, when the speak, produce fully formed thoughts and arguments in a given situation.</p><p style="padding-left:60px;">In some cases, a BoD can help build institutional wisdom through diversity. As I mentioned earlier, wisdom is earned through experiences (usually <em>bad </em>experiences). When the members of a governing body like a BoD are young and/or inexperienced, they can supplement their breadth of experiences by selecting members of a variety of background, ethnicities, nationalities, ideologies, orientation, etc. This broaden of perspective raises the quality of dialog, helps identify problems and issues in policy discussion, and helps to foresee major obstacles on the horizon.</p><p style="padding-left:60px;"><em>Axiom</em>: <em>Wisdom and insight are crucial in building a base of institutional knowledge, context for key decisions, and insight into the highest-probability for success in socially complex situations.</em></p><p>If you’re involved in a governing body of some kind or are considering volunteering with PASS (or any other BoD for a professional association), do a little introspection. Do you possess one or more of the three W’s? Or do you have big dreams or a burning ember of ambition? What do you need to learn to equip yourself with one of the W’s?</p><p>Let me know what you think!</p><p>-Kevin</p>ITPro, Re-architect Your Lifehttp://sqlblog.com/blogs/kevin_kline/archive/2012/04/12/itpro-re-architect-your-life.aspxThu, 12 Apr 2012 14:21:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:42806KKline<p>Have you ever found yourself wanting to make a major shift - in skills, in roles, in relationships? One of my good friends, Jimmy May (<a title="Jimmy May's Blog" href="http://kevinekline.com/wp-admin/blogs.msdn.com/b/jimmymay/">Blog</a> | <a title="Jimmy May's Twitter Feed" href="http://www.twitter.com/aspiringgeek">Twitter</a>), accomplished a set of major career and lifestyle revisions including relocating to Redmond, taking on a huge new level of job responsibility as part of the Microsoft SQL Customer Advisory Team, and achieving the noted accreditation of Microsoft Certified Master.</p><p>Jimmy and I were chatting about undertaking major life changes like these and, as is often the case, his thoughts were too good not to share. Be sure to explore these excellent career development resources. So here were some great pointers from Jimmy:</p><p style="padding-left:30px;">I’ve referred you before to J.D. Meier. Incredibly powerful guy. Here are some brief yet powerful posts:<br> <strong>What’s the Challenge</strong>?<br> <a href="http://sourcesofinsight.com/2011/06/24/whats-the-challenge">http://sourcesofinsight.com/2011/06/24/whats-the-challenge</a><br> <strong>101 Ways to Motivate Yourself and Others</strong><br> <a href="http://sourcesofinsight.com/101-ways-to-motivate-yourself-and-others/">http://sourcesofinsight.com/101-ways-to-motivate-yourself-and-others/</a></p><p style="padding-left:30px;">Want more?<br> <strong>30 Days of Getting Results</strong><br> <a href="http://sourcesofinsight.com/30-days-of-getting-results">http://sourcesofinsight.com/30-days-of-getting-results</a><br> <strong>Take a Tour of Sources of Insight</strong><br> <a href="http://sourcesofinsight.com/2011/06/21/take-a-tour-of-sources-of-insight">http://sourcesofinsight.com/2011/06/21/take-a-tour-of-sources-of-insight</a><br> <strong>Still not enough? Here are his three blogs:</strong><br> <a href="http://www.sourcesofinsight.com/">www.sourcesofinsight.com</a><br> <a href="http://www.gettingresults.com/">www.gettingresults.com</a><br> <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/jmeier">http://blogs.msdn.com/jmeier</a></p><p>Let me know what other resources <span style="text-decoration:underline;">you</span> enjoy for professional and career development!</p><p>And if you're really interested in developing your IT leadership and management skills, I encourage you to attend my <a title="Leadership Skills for the IT Professional by Kevin Kline" href="http://kevinekline.com/itpro-leadership/">Leadership Skills for IT Professionals</a> seminar. I'm presenting this full-day seminar in Dallas at the <a title="SQLRally Pre-conference Seminars" href="http://www.sqlpass.org/sqlrally/2012/dallas/Agenda/PreConference.aspx"> SQLRally</a> on May 8, and in Louisville at <a title="Louisville SQL Saturday 122" href="http://www.sqlsaturday.com/122/eventhome.aspx">SQL Saturday 122</a> on June 19. Hope to see you there!</p><p>Thanks,</p><p>-Kev</p><p>-<a title="Kevin Kline's Twitter Feed" href="http://twitter.com/kekline">Follow me on Twitter at @KEKline</a></p>